Olivia Rodrigo’s backstage tribute to a ’90s rock hero
Pop queen Olivia Rodrigo helps encourage a new era of followers — notably girls — to choose up the guitar.
But Rodrigo — whose guitar-driven anthems have earned her three number-one singles, topping the Billboard charts for a mixed 11 weeks — you will have all the time worn your influences in your sleeve. One younger fan, the daughter of a type of very influences, realized that in probably the most heartwarming approach.
Bands such because the Breeders, Hole and L7 — together with the broader Riot Grrrl motion — are key to Rodrigo’s musical DNA. Their legacy of uncompromising songwriting and robust feminine voices helped form her personal inventive id. It’s additionally why she excursions with an all-female stay band and steadily performs a custom-finished Music Man St. Vincent electric guitar.
In brief, Rodrigo’s rock roots resonate all through a sound that is capturing a era of listeners and serving to return the electrical guitar to the mainstream highlight. But she’s by no means forgotten the artists who paved the best way.
In a new interview with NMEMelissa Auf der Maur — who performed bass on Hole’s seminal album Celebrity Skin — was requested whether or not she acknowledged the band’s affect on immediately’s artists. Her reply mentioned all of it.
“When I got my daughter tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo for her 13th birthday [in 2024]we got invited backstage,” she said. “Olivia Rodrigo said to my daughter, ‘Without your mother, none of this would have happened.’ That’s when it locked in for me that there are direct correlations.”
Auf der Maur added that she hears echoes of the ’90s different period all through Rodrigo’s music.
“In Olivia Rodrigo’s records, I notice the ’90s influence in both the songwriting and production. And of course her debut album, Sourhas artwork that nodes to Hole’s Live Through Thiswith the beauty-queen imagery. But that hearing said to my daughter, in front of me, was one of the proudest moments of my life.”
However, Hole’s bandleader Courtney Love initially felt the similarities between the imagery were a little too close for comfort, sparking an exchange on in 2021. Rodrigo later downplayed any tension between the two.
Regardless, it’s clear that Rodrigo is a champion of ’90s alternative rock and the strong female voices he platformed — with Auf der Maur firmly among them.
Elsewhere, producer and commentator Rick Beato has credited Rodrigo and fellow rising star Chappell Roan with bringing the guitar solo again into pop. Rodrigo’s 2025 stay set reportedly featured seven of them, and he or she has even inspired her lead guitarist to get extra shreddy onstage.
Rodrigo was additionally available to assist induct The White Stripes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in December, revealing that she as soon as ran a fan web page devoted to Jack White’s band when she was simply 13.
That similar night time, Warren Zevon was honored as properly, with David Letterman delivering a moving tribute that included returning considered one of Zevon’s previous guitars to the highlight.
